Pauline Hanson has claimed One Nation is stealing the hearts of Labor voters because the Albanese government "hasn't been loyal" to its supporters, as the minor party continues to surge in the polls.
The latest Sky News / YouGov Pulse poll had One Nation on track to win 29 per cent of primary voting intention, while Labor sank to its lowest-ever result at 26 per cent. Ms Hanson's party was also closing in on Labor on a two-party-preferred basis.
The One Nation leader believes her party has begun to draw on Labor's base, after initially poaching many supporters from the Coalition. She recounted a conversation with a 96-year-old voter in the seat of Nepean who informed her he would not vote for Labor for the first time in his life – instead throwing his support behind One Nation.
"That is common to me now," Ms Hanson told Sky News Australia. "So it's not the Coalition, but these Labor voters are looking for change and... the Labor Party hasn't been loyal to them. They haven't supported them, they've made their life harder, the working conditions and everything is harder for them, their lifestyles are only in their own home, and the lies? They're fed up (with) the lies."
The One Nation leader said she was not surprised by the party's popularity, believing she had "given the people an alternative to vote for other than the two major political parties". "(The major parties) are the ones that have put this country in the situation we are in now, not Pauline Hanson," she said. "I want change. I've put my policies out there, I and my party and my team around me, I'd say, have been driving the agenda."
She claimed the current government, now second in the polls, had plenty to answer for. "The Labor Party have to take responsibility for the mass migration we've had come into this country, so this has just made people homeless, poor, you know, and it doesn't matter where you're going in the country now, just the congestion on our roads... escalating power prices," she said.
One Nation ranked in Sky News and YouGov's previous poll as best placed to handle immigration in voters' eyes. Ms Hanson also hit back at critics after she declared she would not "knock the job" of becoming prime minister one day on the weekend. She said her detractors were out-of-touch and "elitist".
The One Nation Leader cited a recent speaking tour through Queensland, which ended with a conversation involving a destitute widower on the brink of eviction from her caravan, as evidence she was more in touch with everyday Australians than her rivals. "I understand the situation," she said. "A lot of these elitists in your own little... bubbles and all the rest of you who are protected; they haven't got a clue what is happening out there. If I can make an iota of difference to these people to give them hope... well I'm going to keep pushing forward and hopefully I can turn around the mindset of some of these politicians in here who have no idea."
The 72-year-old also compared herself to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in an effort to emphasise her humble beginnings. "Here we have a Prime Minister who always says he grew up in a housing commission house, what is the difference that I've come out of a small business of running my own fish and chip shop?" she asked. "That's what's so great about this country, that anyone can aspire to the position of being prime minister of this nation – and don't forget Ben Chifley... who was a train driver."
In the latest Sky News Pulse / YouGov poll, One Nation's 29 per cent marked a 23-point increase in support from the 2025 federal election. Labor's share of the primary vote fell to 26 per cent, down nine per cent from the election, but still ahead of the Coalition on 20 per cent. One Nation was found to have devoured Labor's traditional voting base, with 35 per cent of working-class people intending to vote for Pauline Hanson's party.
"One Nation's surge in primary vote support has come from working-class voters who have historically favoured Labor," YouGov's Director of Public Data Paul Smith said. "Working class voters are the majority of voters in most electorates, so the battle for the working class vote between Labor and One Nation will decide the next election."
